Wild One

Hey everyone,

Go Gyan

This week was a wild ride! We were so busy with exchanges and instructions, that my mind is blurry. Hopefully i will remember some things that happened.

I guess to start off, we had a baptism this week! Gyan got baptized on Sunday. He is a sweet kid. He is 14 and he invited some of his friends to come haha it was cool.

Elder Nilsson and i spent half of our week with different missionaries going on exchanges. Unfortunately for Elder Nilsson, he had to go to the other area each time because he doesn't know our area well enough yet. Our area has improved a lot in the last couple of weeks though, so i think elder Nilsson has some sort of magic touch. Super grateful he is my comp.

We didn't find time to follow up on the president this week.. hopefully we will check on him this week.

Rosemond, our recent convert is doing great! She got called as the young women secretary and is preparing to go to the temple! She is really excited to go and has been doing her family history. We hope to be able to go to the temple either this week or next week with her.

I got to go on an exchange with my former companion, Elder Sakala! He is awesome. I learned a ton from him and his example. He goes home at the end of the transfer which is crazy! i feel like i was just companions with him, but it has been 17 months! Time is going too fast.

We found a lot of really cool people this week and were able to set some baptismal dates. We are looking like we might be able to meet our goal of three baptisms this month. Keep your fingers crossed.

We proselyted with the stake president this Saturday. He was baptized when he was 18 and due to some health issues was not able to serve a mission, but he takes every opportunity he can to go out with the missionaries. We had some great lessons with him and it was cool to see his diligence in trying to be like Christ.

Things are looking really great here in our area. I always get excited to go out and see our friends and teach them and help them. Life is great as a missionary. I am going to enjoy it while i can!

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Eldredge 

My Guy Wisdom

Mr. President

Hey everyone,

MLC

Week one of the transfer was great! If each week of the rest of the transfer goes as quick as this one, i am in trouble. Time is going too fast. Elder Nilsson and I are having a blast! I feel comfortable teaching with him and things are moving very smoothly. I am super grateful he is my companion. We had a super crazy week with transfers and MLC and meetings, but it was so great! We have been able to find some new people and things are moving forward in our area.

Each transfer, our mission has a theme that we focus on for the transfer, and right now our theme is, "teach people, not lessons." I love this theme because this gospel gives everyone a personal relationship with their Savior and Father, and everyone has their own needs that can be taken care of, we just need to follow this Spirit to help us know what they need. 

Eric was supposed to be baptized this week, but for a couple reasons we weren't able to baptize him. Hopefully he will be ready in a couple weeks. Gyan is still doing great! We are hoping to baptize him this weekend. 

This week we went to see one of our members who likes us to come and read the Book of Mormon with her, but she wasn't feeling well, so we thought we would stop by the President and see if he was home. The guards of his house are super nice, we just walked right up to the security check at his house and talked to the bodyguards and police and asked them if we could give the president a Book of Mormon to read. So we gave it to the bodyguard to give to him. We are going to follow up this week ;) 

Sunday, our stake president held a meeting with all the missionaries in our stake and we talked about how the missionary work is going and how our relationships are with our wards. It was a great meeting, and we were able to discuss a lot with him. He also scheduled to proselyte with all the missionaries in our zone in the coming months. It is awesome to see everyone's love of the gospel and willingness to share it. 

Everything is going great! I'm excited to see what will come ahead in the next few months! I love my mission, and i am so grateful to serve the Lord. 

Have a good week! 

love,

Elder Eldredge

Eddy's Pizza

City Bush Falls

Farewell Elder Udo

Hey everyone,

Me and Mawena

we had another great week here in Newtown. The work here is beginning to pick up more and more each week. We have some great investigators, and the Lord keeps blessing us with new people to teach. We had stake conference this weekend, and elder Udo had to say a lot of goodbyes which was not easy. I am super grateful for the time i had to serve with him. 

Bro Eric is still doing great! He is continuing to progress and is loving the gospel. We are hoping to baptize him this weekend with another part member named Gyan. 

Stake conference was great! There was a general theme of "Look to the Savior, and live!" It was such a great, inspired conference. Sometimes when something big happens, either good or bad, i can tend to look to other sources for comfort or to give thanks, but I always need to remember the Savior for all my needs. At mid-week, we read about the story of Jonah. After Jonah gets swallowed up by the whale, he says to the Lord in chapter 2:4, "I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple." To Jonah, the temple became like a lighthouse on the shore helping him back to safety. The Savior loves us so much and has given us so much in order to remember Him and receive His guidance. When we look to the temple, and to the Savior, He will help us through any trial we may have. I am so grateful for this restored gospel.  

I also met a man at the conference who was the first missionary in the Tesano area many years ago. He was so happy to see how much it has grown over the years. I cant imagine the thought going through his mind, seeing such a large stake, and being the missionary who helped start it. We can count the seeds in an apple, but you cant count the apples that come out of the seeds. He is now living in Chicago, in a stake where Fletcher served! Small world. 

So I guess i should say something about transfers... I will be getting a new companion, his name is Elder Nilsson from Springville Utah! We came here together, and we have been best buds since the MTC! Now we will finish our missions together hahahah. President said that in our last transfer they will put us in a three some and we will finish together. I am so excited! It will be a fun time. 

I love it here so much. I am so grateful to be here and to serve my Savior. I love Him, and i know He loves each one of us. 

Hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Eldredge

Some sweet graffiti 

Rice, soup, sister Kate 

Sister Kate

Happy Mother's Day!

Hey, everyone!

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day yesterday! It was so good to talk to all of you yesterday. Sorry i couldn't Skype! Next time we talk will be face to face, so it is alright. 

This week went too fast. I am having a hard time remembering what all happened! It was a good week though! We struggled to be able to sit down with people though. Sometimes things just don't work out i guess. 

My chair broke in the middle of comp study

Sister Rosemond got confirmed yesterday! She said she felt really good. You could already tell a difference in her. Just looking at her you could tell that she was just happy. It reminded me of Matthew 6:22, where it talks about how if our eye is single, we will be filled with light. It made me so happy, and grateful to be a missionary. This work is true.

On Wednesday, they asked me to provide an activity for mid-week. So we watched "Meet the Mormons." Unfortunately the volume was pretty quiet, and by the end of the movie, half of the members were dead asleep.. The activity kind of bombed hahah 

We had a pretty interesting experience. It was good and bad at the same time. So on Thursday, we were walking to go to an appointment, and we felt like taking a random route to get there, and on the way there, we were walking through a giant Muslim community, and someone called us over to talk to them. So we kind of hesitantly went over to see who it was. When we saw him, he was just this guy watching a store and he told us how he used to be a Muslim, but that he met the missionaries in Cape Coast and they gave him a Restoration pamphlet and he converted to Christianity. So we set up an appointment to come on Saturday. When we got there on Saturday, we began the lesson and he bore such a powerful testimony about the Restored gospel. It was awesome. Not too long after that however, his mom came to where we were sitting, and asked us to leave... So we just had to get up and go without saying anything else. Hopefully we will be able to continue to meet with him though! Pray so that his mom's heart will be softened! I know we didn't meet him by accident. It was just another testimony to me that this is the Lord's work, and we just need to be worthy to work for him. 

This is the last week of the transfer, and i cant believe how fast it has gone! It is sad to think that i will go home soon. I will miss this so much. 

This gospel is true, and God is there. He loves us so much.

thank you for all your support! I have the best family and friends! 

Have a good week! 

Love Elder Eldredge 

Baptism

Hey everyone! 

Rosemond's baptism

I don't have much time to write this week, but we had a great week! Our area is starting to pick up a little more each day. We also had Multi-zone conferences this week, which was great. We have some great leaders in our mission.

This week, we had a lot of failed appointments, which led us to other people who were ready to hear the gospel. We saw a lot of miracles after we showed our faith. We started teaching a part member this week and he came to church! He struggles to speak English, but he has some great support. 

On Wednesday, we had our multi-zone conference, and we talked a lot about integrity. I want to be completely trusted by the Lord, and do what is right whether someone is watching or not. 

Sunday, we had a baptism! And four investigators came to church! And we got two fm's (free meals)! haha it was the greatest day ever. 

The baptism was so nice. Basically the whole ward was there supporting sister Rosemond. Our ward is great! 

Everything is great here! excited to talk to you this week!! 

love you all! have a great week! Happy mothers day to all you mothers out there!

Deep fried rice. Super good

Exchange with elder Taunuu from Samoa

Ghana schools

Sunday night football

sunset

fufu and palm nut soup from our neighbor

Ozzie burger at the mission office! Our office couple rocks

This picture of Elder Paulson perfecty describes how i felt on Sunday

Weekly

Hey everyone,

this week was really fast. Things are going well in Newtown. We were able to extend a couple baptismal dates and find some cool new people. We also had interviews with president Simpson this week which was great. I love being able to talk to him and receive advice. 

Wisdom, a recent convert

A couple weeks ago, we went to visit a member and we found out that her brother had just come to live with them so they asked us to teach him. At first he just seemed sad and down-hearted and didn't really pay attention. We taught him about prayer and how he can recognize the Spirit, and it changed everything. After that lesson, he came to church, and he is super attentive. His whole attitude has changed about us. We saw him on Sunday night after he came to church and asked him how he felt, and he said that he just felt happy. A kind of happiness that he can't even describe. We gave him a baptismal date and hopefully he will be ready by the end of May! So grateful for the Spirit!

We also started teaching an elderly man a couple weeks ago who is awesome! We taught him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and the next time we went there, we met him with his neighbor who was reading for him because he couldn't see. We followed up with him on the Book of Mormon, and he was so happy, and knew that the Book of Mormon is true. He also agreed to be baptized. Plus we got to teach his neighbor and she is awesome too! Such a miracle that we needed for sure. 

Sister Rosemond is still doing great! She is so ready for her baptism this week, and we are excited for her. 

This gospel is true with out a doubt. It changes lives and brings joy to all who choose to exercise a particle of faith. God hears and answers prayers. He definitely did for me this week. 

Love you all! have a great week!

Love Elder Ben Eldredge

Market

Random pic from our area

Slivers of Hope

Hey everyone,

we had another great week here in Newtown! This area has been the most challenging of my mission by far. I am grateful for what i am learning here. Even though it is hard, there are always slivers of hope to keep us going. We also had ward conference this week and received great instruction from the stake. Our ward is doing such a great job.

I was finally able to go on an exchange with one of my MTC mates this week. I have never proselyted with someone in my MTC, so it was fun to be with Elder Skog. It was a good day and we walked a ton! I think we walked through the entire area. We went to see a member who is blind. She is such a faithful member, who goes to the temple every week, and we go and read the scriptures and sing hymns for her. When we got there, she said she wanted to read from the book of Abraham, which i thought was a cool but unusual request. As we were reading she got so excited and she was so happy. She said, "this church really has the truth! this church is true! Joseph Smith was a prophet!" haha I'm sure if she could see, she would never put down the scriptures. she is awesome. 

At the end of the day, we were walking back to the apartment, and it started to rain super hard out of no where. I looked at Elder Skog and asked him if we should go find somewhere to get out of the rain, but he just kept walking and said he was enjoying it. So we walked home as slow as possible, just soaking up the rain while we could. People were looking at us like we were crazy haha it was really funny.

Emile got confirmed this week. After he got confirmed, he left. We didn't really know why he left so fast, but later when we got home we saw him and he was with his brother. He had to go pick up his brother, who also got baptized not long ago in Malaysia! He came to find out that his brother just got confirmed also! They were both really happy.

Things are going great, and i cant believe how fast time is going! I love this place. Hope you all have a great week! Thank you for the prayers and emails! 

Love, 

Elder Ben Eldredge